scholarly journals Public Adherence to Preventive Practices during the Third Wave of the COVID-19 in Afghanistan

Author(s):  
Arash Nemat ◽  
Mohammad Faiq Sediqi ◽  
Yasir Ahmad Mohammed Elhadi ◽  
Mohammad Yasir Essar ◽  
Nahid Raufi ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic emerged from Wuhan, China and has spread across the world and raised public health concerns. To curb the spread of the disease, the government has imposed prevention measures. The objective of this study was to examine the compliance of people with infection prevention practices during the third wave of the pandemic to provide an updated insight into the situation and help policy makers in designing effective measures. Methods This was an online survey of the general population in Afghanistan from April, 2021 to May, 2021. Non-probability convenience sampling technique was used to recruit the respondents. The target sample size was found to be around 1,094 respondents. Data collection was guided through self-administered questionnaire developed by the researchers according to the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Results From 1,094 respondents, 78% were male. Majority of the respondents were aged ≤ 30 years and had an undergraduate education. Nearly, 1 in 3 participants were healthcare workers and 70% were living in households with 5 or more family members. Overall, 70% of the respondents reported good preventive practices. No significant association found between male and female participants with regard to preventive practices against the COVID-19. The frequency of good preventive practices was significantly higher in participants more than 30 years old (p = 0.035), people with a post-graduate education (p = 0.025), healthcare workers (p = 0.002), and households with less than five family members (p = 0.002). Conclusion Generally, the public in Afghanistan are following infection prevention rules. However, there are certain areas which require further improvement such as observing social distance and avoid shaking hands when meeting others. Negligence of these prevention practices can lead to the increase of infection transmission among people. Public awareness should be continued to keep the people supportive of the government policies. Social media, television advertisements, and similar platforms may be used for this purpose.

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
John T Njovu

"I started taking notice of the coronavirus outbreak when it started to quickly spread to other countries. On 13 January 2020 a first COVID-19 case outside China was confirmed in Thailand. When Europe got affected and numbers started exponentially rising in Italy and England, I became concerned. "When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a pandemic on 11 March and the media increased its coverage, the government started its public awareness and prevention programme. Some Zambians, including myself, volunteered to help the Ministry of Health in information dissemination. I helped translate the WHO guidelines into Nsenga. It is a language spoken mainly by an indigenous ethnic group, Nsenga, found in the Eastern province of Zambia."


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Diotallevi ◽  
Anna Campanati ◽  
Giulia Radi ◽  
Oriana Simonetti ◽  
Emanuela Martina ◽  
...  

UNSTRUCTURED Two months have passed since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the pandemic of the Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19), caused by the SARS CoV-2 virus, on March 11, 2020. Medical and healthcare workers have continued to be on the frontline to defeat this disease, however, continual changes are being made to their working habits which are proving to be difficult. Since the beginning of the pandemic, a major reorganisation of all hospital wards, including dermatological wards, has been carried out in order to make medical and nursing staff available in COVID wards and to prevent the spread of infection. These strategies, which were also adopted in our clinic, proved to be effective, as no staff members or patients were infected by the virus. Now, thanks to the global decrease in SARS-CovV2 infections, it is necessary to make dermatological wards accessible to patients again, but it is also essential to adopt specific protocols to avoid a new wave of infections.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeya Sutha M

UNSTRUCTURED COVID-19, the disease caused by a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a highly contagious disease. On January 30, 2020 the World Health Organization declared the outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. As of July 25, 2020; 15,947,292 laboratory-confirmed and 642,814 deaths have been reported globally. India has reported 1,338,928 confirmed cases and 31,412 deaths till date. This paper presents different aspects of COVID-19, visualization of the spread of infection and presents the ARIMA model for forecasting the status of COVID-19 death cases in the next 50 days in order to take necessary precaution by the Government to save the people.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 215013272110133
Author(s):  
Samar Fares ◽  
Merihan M. Elmnyer ◽  
Shimaa Sabry Mohamed ◽  
Radwa Elsayed

Introduction COVID-19 pandemic has affected the whole world, especially the frontline worriers. To get shielded through this war, the world is racing to reach and manufacture COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccination hesitancy is one of the significant obstacles to global health. Objectives This study aimed to assess the perception and attitude of healthcare workers in Egypt toward COVID-19 vaccines, acknowledge the determinants of their attitude, and the factors that could increase the acceptance of the vaccine. Methods an observational web-based anonymous survey was conducted on 385 Egyptian healthcare workers in different governorates. The questionnaire-based on Vaccine Hesitancy Survey Questions of the World Health Organization was available in Arabic and English languages and was tested for reliability. Results Regarding vaccination decision, 51% of the participants were undecided, 28% refused, and 21% accepted vaccination. Reasons for vaccine acceptance mainly were risks of COVID-19 (93%), safety (57.5%), and effectiveness (56.25%) of the vaccine. Simultaneously, the reasons for vaccine hesitancy were the absence of enough clinical trials (92.4%) and fear of side effects of the vaccine (91.4%). The leading factor that could increase vaccination acceptance among the participants was to get sufficient and accurate information about the available vaccines. The participants revealed a high mean level of concern for COVID-19 vaccines’ safety (3.8 of 5) that differs significantly among the different study groups ( P-value .002). Conclusion Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, only approximately 21% of Egyptian healthcare workers in our study accepted the COVID-19 vaccination. Vaccine hesitancy represents a major barrier to implementing vaccination programs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 169-173
Author(s):  
Linda Nazarko

Coronavirus (COVID-19) has claimed the lives of over 150 000 people in the UK ( UK Government, 2021 ). The UK has the third highest death rate in the world and the fourth highest obesity rate ( Lobstein, 2021 ). Although the UK is a developed nation, many people in the UK experience poor health, as a result of being overweight and inactive. Healthcare workers are not immune from these issues. This article, the first in a series, explores how readers can remain healthy and well by making lifestyle choices that promote health.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayat Mushcab ◽  
Jaffar Al-Tawfiq ◽  
Mohammed Ghamdi ◽  
Amani Babgi ◽  
Abdulrazack Amir ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The nature of the healthcare workers' jobs standing at the frontline against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) puts them at a higher risk of unknowingly contracting the disease and potentially contributing to the spread. This study aims to assess the overall positive seroconversion prevalence of SARS-CoV-2. Methods This is a longitudinal cohort study of healthcare workers at a tertiary hospital serving patients in several districts in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Participants were recruited between June - December 2020. Each participant had a serology blood test and completed the World Health Organization's risk factors assessment questionnaire. Results This study included 682 participants working in any capacity at a tertiary hospital, representing 15.7% of our population. Only 87 participants tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, a prevalence of 12.7% of all participants. Of the 87 participants, 17 participants never tested positive for COVID-19 rt-PCR before the study, a prevalence of 2.9%. Moreover, the improper technique of using alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water after the risk of body fluid exposure and wearing personal protective equipment when indicated were found to be statistically significant to having positive SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay with P=0.02, P=0.03, and CI: 95% respectively. Conclusion Positive seroconversion rate was considerably low during the first wave of COVID-19 amongst our healthcare workers and similar to other healthcare organizations in Saudi Arabia. Seropositivity correlated significantly with adherence to infection prevention and control recommendations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 240
Author(s):  
Erlandson Ferreira SARAIVA ◽  
Leandro SAUER ◽  
Basílio De Bragança PEREIRA ◽  
Carlos Alberto de Bragança PEREIRA

In December of 2019, a new coronavirus was discovered in the city of Wuhan, China. The World Health Organization officially named this coronavirus as COVID-19. Since its discovery, the virus has spread rapidly around the world and is currently one of the main health problems, causing an enormous social and economic burden. Due to this, there is a great interest in mathematical models capable of projecting the evolution of the disease in countries, states and/or cities. This interest is mainly due to the fact that the projections may help the government agents in making decisions in relation to the prevention of the disease. By using this argument, the health department of the city (HDC) of Campo Grande asked the UFMS for the development of a mathematical study to project the evolution of the disease in the city. In this paper, we describe a modeling procedure used to fit a piecewise growth model for the accumulated number of cases recorded in the city. From the fitted model, we estimate the date in which the pandemic peak is reached and project the number of patients who will need treatment in intensive care units. Weekly, was sent to HDC a technical report describing the main results.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohd Rohaizat Hassan ◽  
Syed Sharizman Syed Abdul Rahim ◽  
Mohammad Saffree Jeffree

  The COVID -19 pandemic has hit the world for a period of a year and a half; it has been a triple crisis, with medical, economic, and psychological consequences. After 18 months of going through a pandemic, this includes not only facing the transmission of SARS CoV-2 virus but also restricted movements. Communities are now facing pandemic fatigue starting as early as the third wave of increased cases in September 2020. Pandemic fatigue is the stage when the initial enthusiasm and eagerness to tackle the crisis is replaced by feelings of exhaustion. In a simple definition, pandemic fatigue is understood as demotivation to follow recommended protective behaviours. It is a natural and expected reaction to sustained and unresolved adversity in people’s lives, evolving gradually over time and affected by several emotions, experiences, and perceptions as well as the cultural, social, structural, and legislative environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
Mirza Ghulamudin Ghulamudin ◽  
Maufur ◽  
Beni Habibi

Covid-19 has now attacked Indonesia, where the spread of the disease is very fast. Not only in Indonesia, but all corners of the world are currently experiencing a health crisis. In the beginning, the spread of Covid-19 had an impact on economic activity which began to sluggish. This also has an impact on the education system in Indonesia. Until several countries decided to close schools and universities. In an effort to prevent the spread of covid-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends temporarily stopping activities that would potentially cause crowds. Even during the outbreak, covid-19 in Indonesia, there were many ways that the government did to prevent its spread through social distancing. Kemendikbud instructed through the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) Directorate of Higher Education Circular No. 1 of 2020 concerning the prevention of the spread of covid-19 in the world of Education to organize distance learning and advise students to learn from their homes. Teachers and students are starting to be required to follow the current situation by using technology as a distance learning medium. One of the media that is being favored by teachers as a learning medium is the Google Classroom application. This application is an application that can make it easier for students and teachers to create effective learning. Given that students today are a generation who are very familiar with the use of technology. The use of technology in learning is an alternative method used by teachers during the Covid-19 Pandemic.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Cantoni ◽  
Martin Mayora-Neto ◽  
Angalee Nadesalingam ◽  
David A. Wells ◽  
George W. Carnell ◽  
...  

One of the defining criteria of Variants of Concern (VOC) is their ability to evade pre-existing immunity, increased transmissibility, morbidity and/or mortality. Here we examine the capacity of convalescent plasma, from a well defined cohort of healthcare workers (HCW) and Patients infected during the first wave from a national critical care centre in the UK, to neutralise B.1.1.298 variant and three VOCs; B.1.1.7, B.1.351 and P.1. Furthermore, to enable lab to lab, country to country comparisons we utilised the World Health Organisation (WHO) International Standard for anti-SARS-CoV-2 Immunoglobulin to report neutralisation findings in International Units. These findings demonstrate a significant reduction in the ability of first wave convalescent plasma to neutralise the VOCs. In addition, Patients and HCWs with more severe COVID-19 were found to have higher antibody titres and to neutralise the VOCs more effectively than individuals with milder symptoms. Widespread use of the WHO International Standard by laboratories in different countries will allow for cross-laboratory comparisons, to benchmark and to establish thresholds of protection against SARS-CoV-2 and levels of immunity in different settings and countries.


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